


Choking On Your Alibi

by nazgularepeopletoo



Category: Halloweentown (1998)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Copious amounts of mums, Death, Gen, Hanahaki Disease, I guess???, No one will tell me what happened before the first Halloweentown movie so here we are, Other Additional Tags to Be Added
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-20
Updated: 2018-01-03
Packaged: 2019-01-20 05:49:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,812
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12426282
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nazgularepeopletoo/pseuds/nazgularepeopletoo
Summary: Gwen left. Moved to the Mortal World. So that was it, right? No, not really. It's only the beginning.





	1. A Lung's Worth of Pain

The coughing started fifty years after Gwen moved to the Mortal World. He didn’t think anything about it at first; he was used to bad coughs due to poor ventilation in his lab. But this one didn’t go away. And it started to feel like there was something stuck in his lungs. Stuck, but moving steadily upwards.

Of course, it wasn’t until he coughed up something bright orange that he decided to go see someone about it. By this point, it had been fifteen more years of constant coughing and stifled breathing. He took the orange object, which looked suspiciously like a flower petal though he couldn’t place just what kind, to the closest pumpkinhead he could find. The pumpkinheads always knew everything about anything organic or garden-y.

“Well, hm.” The pumpkinhead stared at the thing for a good while. “You said you… coughed this up, Mr. Kalabar?” The man in question nodded, frowning.

“Yes… Why? What is it?”

“Well…. It looks like a mum petal.” The pumpkinhead finally looked up, trying to school her expression into something neutral. “I’m very sorry, sir. That’s all I can tell you. It doesn’t make much sense. Maybe you inhaled it on accident..?”

“I’m… sure that’s what happened. Thank you.” Kalabar stood, thanking the pumpkinhead and leaving quickly. So it _was_ a flower petal. He knew for a fact there weren’t any mums around his house, so where had it come from? He had a inkling of an idea, but there was really only one person he could confirm it with. And he really didn’t want to see her right now.

Aggie Cromwell.

It took another thirteen years of coughing up petals, sometimes single petals, sometimes a flurry, before someone noticed. He had been in the middle of the Town Square after an unnecessary campaign event when suddenly he couldn’t breathe. Knowing what it was, he tried to leave quickly, but only made it a few feet before tripping, collapsing to his knees before coughing violently for what felt like two whole minutes. Everyone had crowded around, worried and offering help, but he tried to wave them away. When the coughing ended, he spit out a full flower, stem and all. The crowd sent glances to each other, unsure if it had been a trick or not. Kalabar sat there for a moment, panting heavily, before stumbling to his feet and giving them all a weak smile.

“Everything’s fine, I promise. Just got a mum stuck in my throat.” He winked and held out the flower to a pretty young witch, who took it with a blush. “I’ll see you all later, I’ve got some business to attend to.” With a bow, he pushed his way through the people, making a beeline for Aggie’s house. When he got to the gate, however, he paused.

There was no guarantee that Aggie would help him or even would know anything about what was happening to him. Aggie had always said he was welcome to visit if he needed anything, but it had been a while since they had spoken. What if she refused to see him? What if he was wasting his time? He was a busy man and had a lot to do, but he had been dealing with this for 28 years and it obviously was not getting better on its own. It just kept getting worse.

With another feeble cough, which sent a few petals fluttering, he knocked at the gate. It opened a few seconds later and he hesitantly made his way up to the porch. He barely had enough time to raise his hand to knock when the door flew open and one Agatha Cromwell had pulled him inside and into a tight hug.

“Kalabar! It’s been so long since you’ve come here! I’m going to vote for you in the upcoming election, you know!” Kalabar laughed, gently pulling away. It was only a bit awkward, but her attitude was making him relax.

“I should hope so, I’m running unopposed.” He cracked a grin, but almost immediately started coughing again. This time, no less than fifty petals came pouring out of his mouth and settled on the ground. He heard a sharp intake of breath and felt a hand on his shoulder before he realised that he was bent over, eyes closed. When he opened them, he nearly fainted.

There was blood mixed in with the fallen petals.

“Oh... Kalabar.” Aggie helped him straighten up and immediately led him to the table. He’d never felt this week before and it was… frightening him, to be sure. “How long has this been going on…?” He stayed silent for a moment, hesitating.

“What is it? What’s… causing it?” Aggie sighed, shaking her head. He was avoiding the question, but she would get the answer out of him sooner or later.

“It’s a very rare condition called “hanahaki syndrome”. It has to do with this,” she poked gently at his heart. “and this.” This time the poke was at his lungs. “Flowers grow in the lungs when love is unrequited.”

They both knew it was Gwen. Kalabar was explicitly aware that Aggie knew that it was Gwen. He almost got up and left right then, but Aggie reached out once more and laid a hand over his.

“I’m sorry, Kalabar. I-“ Before she could finish, he interrupted.

“How do I get rid of it?” The expression on Aggie’s face was all the answer he needed. “ _What do I need to do?_ ” He was not about to back down. He wasn’t going to let this win.

“There is a spell that can keep… further problems from arising, but it is very difficult to perform and it won’t alleviate the problem fully.” Kalabar nodded, stifling a cough. When he pulled his hand away there was blood on it.

“Tell me what it is. Just tell me what I need to do.” His voice cracked halfway through the plea and he winced, unable to look Aggie in the eye. This wasn’t supposed to happen. Gwen wasn’t supposed to still be able to hurt him and yet here was clear evidence that she would never stop. But none of that mattered right now; if he kept thinking about it that way he would start crying, and there was no way he was going to cry in front of Aggie.

Aggie sighed, clearly reluctant to give away the recipe. After a moment, however, she shook her head and went to the counter which was covered in books and scraps of paper. She sifted for a while, grumbling to herself, before finally pulling out a long thin sheet of paper, cracked with age. Some of the ink on it was smudged, but after squinting at it, she dubbed it clear enough to read. Bringing it over to the table, she placed it down reverently, as if the thing might crumble away into dust right before their eyes. It might have, too, if Aggie hadn’t muttered a quiet spell to keep it together. 

“Here it is. Be careful, Kalabar. Some of these ingredients are dangerous to obtain. There’s dark magic in this scroll” Aggie paused for a moment. “There is another way this could be fixed, but... I don’t know if you want to hear it.” He stopped, hand halfway to the table. 

“Tell me.” 

“You could fall in love with someone else. Move on.” Kalabar tensed, yanking the paper off the table. 

“Thank you for your help, Aggie.” His voice was frigid, but she hadn’t been expecting anything less. Some people didn’t like change. “I’ll let you know how it goes.” 


	2. Mum's The Word

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kalabar's got the spell, now he just has to translate it.

               The spell felt heavy in his hands as he quickly made his way from Aggie’s house to his own a few blocks away. He didn’t dare look at it until he was locked in his study, away from any potential prying eyes. He was greeted with a quiet caw from Mordred who was perched on top of a bookshelf. Settling behind the large oak desk, Kalabar unrolled the scroll.

                The language was ancient. It might take longer to translate the spell than to actually make it. With a flick of his wrist, he pulled a few books off the shelves, arranging them in a half-circle around the scroll on the desk. Might as well get to work.

                The first hour was spent figuring out which language the scroll was written in, then which dialect of said language it was. Turns out, it was a rare branch of Ancient Merlinian, which shouldn’t have been a surprise. Merlin would have been the one to come up with a spell such as this. Since he was able to read a few variations of Merlinian, he would be able to read the scroll, but it seemed as if the spell hadn’t been used in ages, as if it hadn’t actually been intended to be used when it was written. He wondered vaguely if Aggie had been counting on him not being able to translate the scroll, but immediately banished the thought. Aggie loved him and would want him to get better if he could.

 

                He was exhausted by the time he’d gotten the spell fully translated. The candle was burning low and the sun had completely gone under the horizon. Even Mordred was nestled down amongst the books asleep. But it was done. He had the cure. As if on cue, a fit of coughs wracked through him, spattering blood and petals across the scroll. How poetic. Wiping his mouth, he stared down with blurry eyes at the instructions scribbled in front of him.

 

To stop the spread of floral root

Creating a loves substitute

You need to gather these things four

Nothing less, and nothing more

 

A hair from the one who’s love you’ve lost  
A seed from the plant within your lungs  
The bones of one who died for love  
A sacrifice of living blood

 

Burn them all, the fire tend

Before the flowers cause your end

 

                That was… a lot. And he had no idea how on earth he was going to get some of those things. The seed would be easy, the blood too probably. It could be anything, couldn’t it? But how was he supposed to get a strand of hair from Gwen? He would have to go into her home on Halloween without her noticing, or Aggie. Aggie went every year. He could ask her to get it, as Aggie was the one who had given him the spell in the first place. Or he could just go himself.

                Either way, it was months until Halloween, so he may as well get to work researching for the fourth item. The bones of one who died for love. With a sigh, he stood. Research could start in the morning. He needed to sleep before starting anything at this point.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Sorry this chapter is so short after such a long wait. I finished my semester and have been pretty busy all break. I decided to keep the items to their own chapters so the next one will be a lot longer, I promise ;v;

**Author's Note:**

> Title from The Killer's "Mr. Brightside". 
> 
> I'm not sure how a lot of things work in Halloweentown but I did a lot of research and this is what I came up with! It's been roughly five years in the Mortal World by the end of this chapter.


End file.
